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BrotherofE
2011-04-24, 04:42 PM
:smallsmile:Hello there!
After some time of lurking around, i've decided to submit this little thing for peach'ing it's been floating around in my head for some time now, and i intend to use it in the next campain i'll be running. It is not suposed to "fix" the fighter, o'll use ToB for that:smallredface:
Rather, i see it as a warrior-mage that follows the spirit of the fighter: Versatility. I've tried to be as inclusive as possible.
Now, without further ado: The Arcane Fighter

Hit die: D8. Due to the time spent studying their arcane arts, arcane fighters are not as durable as their traditional counterparts.

Class skills: add knowledge (arcane) and Spellcraft to the Arcane Fighter’s class skill list.

Class Features

Weapon and Armor proficiencies: arcane fighters are proficient with simple and martial weapons, light and medium armor and shields (but not tower shields).

Arcane Attunement: at first level, the arcane fighter must choose an arcane spellcasting class to which she is attuned. She needs not have levels in the class. This choice determines the arcane fighter’s spell list and casting mechanic. At each level, the arcane fighter gains an increase in caster level as if she had taken a level of the class (she does not gain spells, except as detailed below) and may choose one of the following benefits; (they all stack with benefits derived from actual levels in the attuned class)

Access to the next spell level, provided the casting class to which she is attuned could cast spells of that level. She must have access to all the lower levels of spells. As an example, while an arcane fighter attuned to wizardry who reaches 3rd level could pick this benefit and gain access to 2. Level spells, one attuned to the warmage class could not. You use the sum of both arcane fighter and actual class levels to determine if you can have access to the higher spell levels. When you gain a new spell level this way, you have 0 spells of that level. Bonus from a high ability score apply.

A bonus spell per day. This may be added to any spell level you know.

An extra spell known of any level you know. If the fighter prepares spell by spellbook it is added to it free of cost. If you are a spontaneous caster with instant access to your spell list, it is added as if with whatever advanced learning ability that is available to your class. If you are attuned to the sorcerer or similar caster, it is added to your spells known. In case of sorcerers, this is the only way to gain spells known, barring feats and actual levels in the class. Others gain access as normal, that is, wizards must research, beguilers and its like automatically know it all.

Bonus feats: At 2nd level and every two arcane fighter levels thereafter (4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 20th), may select a bonus feat from the fighter bonus feat list.

These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. A fighter is not limited to the list of fighter bonus feats when choosing these feats.

And thats it :smallsmile:
I'll add some feats later.
Now please let me have it, is it way overpowered? I was aiming for a tier 3 and i think it might be a little highpowered.
what do you think?

-BoE

Ziegander
2011-04-24, 09:07 PM
Okay, so let me try and decipher this. In exchange for the feat you normally gain at 1st level you get Arcane Attunement. This feature gives you an arcane caster level equal to your Fighter level, and you choose an arcane caster class to attune yourself to. In addition, at every Fighter level you choose one of: Access To The Next Spell Level, A Bonus Spell Per Day, or An Extra Spell Known.

Is this all correct so far?

I think it is, but still, I have a few questions.

1) At first level do you have any spells known or spell slots?

2) Does this variant suffer arcane spell failure?

The way I'm reading it, it looks as though a character would need to be at least 2nd level (and maybe 3rd), before he could cast a single 1st level spell per day. To get 9th level spells, and the knowledge of a single spell per level, costs 18/20 of this variant's new "features," but even so, it's quite powerful. I'm confident that any character with access to 9th level spells from any arcane casting list is going to be Tier 2. It's a lot like a Stalwart Battle Sorcerer but with full Base Attack. On top of that it still gets the full complement of fighter bonus feats. It's definitely going to be stronger and more versatile than any Warblade.

Welknair
2011-04-24, 09:30 PM
The casting mechanic is a bit complicated.

So, if I've got this straight, you're saying that in exchange for losing a single feat and dropping your hit die down to d8, you can eventually gain access to ninth level spells, while knowing at least one spell of each level? :smallconfused:

WORTH IT. I believe the standard rule of thumb is "If you can't imagine a character not wanting to use this, then it's overpowered". Why in the world would anyone ever want to player a Fighter if they could use this instead?

I made a... kinda similar thing for my Magitech system, called the "New-Age Knight" who got a casting progression the same as a Paladin with spells primarily drawn from the Wizard list. Mostly buffs. And to balance this, he didn't get near as many feats. A single feat and a slight HP drop is well worth casting. Heck, once you get Stoneskin...

BrotherofE
2011-04-25, 02:39 AM
hmm i think i see... what if i limited it to sixth level spells?
that would give it a duskbladelike progression i think.
and yes it was supposed to be more powerful than straight fighter, so perhaps making it a variant was a bad idea.
still, i'm not quite sure what else it would be:smalleek:

-BoE